


The Other Side

by haloburns



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Gen, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-17
Updated: 2016-03-17
Packaged: 2018-05-24 21:37:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6167593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haloburns/pseuds/haloburns
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alexander looks through to the other side.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Other Side

**Author's Note:**

> small explanation: the breaks are to show a jerky passing of time, as he fades in and out of consciousness. it feels like its too much, but its a style thing, i promise. its the same sort of feeling in the world was wide enough, for me at least.

Alexander couldn't breathe.

Burr had shot him. He'd _actually_ shot him.

"If you talk, you gonna get shot!" he'd said all those years ago. 30 years they'd been friends. But oh wasn't that the truth... Lee found that out, _his son_ found that out, and now he had too.

 

* * *

 

 _Pain_.

They were moving him. His dad was crying… Wait. He's watching himself. He's Philip, watching Alexander cry over Philip's dead body. Alexander cried out as he relived his son's death. Cried out because Eliza was going to lose him again, after all they'd been through. Cried out because he was _angry_ and he was _scared_.

 

* * *

 

There was shuffling up ahead and Alexander looked up to see John throw his head back and laugh. _My dear Laurens_...

"You're the best friend that I got, Alexander. Come on, let's go get a drink together." John's hand ghosted over Alexander's as he was carried into a room. He reached for his love but he was already out of reach. Always out of reach.

 

* * *

 

Once he was settled into bed, his mother came in. He breathed deeply, tears coming to his eyes as he inhaled her scent. She sat next to him, speaking in soft Creole, a language he had forgotten and one he had loved.

"Mama, I miss you..." he told her, his voice thick with tears.

"Take your time, baby. No need to rush back to me. You've got people here who love you and need you. I can wait, I've always waited for you." With that, she stood, her hand never leaving Alexander's. He cried openly for his mother. He missed her face, her voice, her embrace. 

And then she was gone again.

 

* * *

 

"Where's my husband?!" 

"Is he alive?"

"Can I see him?" _Eliza_... Alexander blinked awake, and his gaze was met with her beautiful black eyes filled with tears.

"Eliza..."

"How could you do this?" she whispered, anger and sadness evident in her voice. Tears rolled down her face. He reached up to caress it.

"I was aiming for the sky... I was aiming for the sky..." He started coughing, pain searing through his body.

"I know, I know. I know, I know," Eliza sobbed, memories of Philip rising to the forefront. She'd already lost her son and her sister and had just found her husband again... "Stay alive..." she whispered again, pulling him closer to her.  _Just stay alive..._ she thought.

 

* * *

 

"Hey Pops," Philip said quietly, settling into the chair beside Alexander's deathbed.

" _My son_..." Alexander whispers in pain, pain at seeing his son, pain at the bullet burrowing into his body. "I tried to make the world safe and sound for you... You were supposed to come of age with our young nation... Instead, I lost you..." Tears clouded his vision as Philip took his hand.

"I'm happy now, though Pops. I get to see you every day, even if you don't see me. And you'll never guess the ladies that are up here to chat with..." His son broke into a smile, one that Alexander knew all too well.

"When you smile, I am undone..." Alexander turned as the doctor walked in. "My son... Look at my son! When he smiles, I fall apart..." The doctor only nodded, a polite smile on his face as Alexander's face crumpled. "I thought I was so smart..." He looked back up to see Philip. He wanted to be with him again more than anything. To listen to his poetry. To listen to him laugh.

"Pops, she's waiting for you," his son said, suddenly somber.

"Who is?" Alexander's face was confused again. Eliza wanted him to stay, waiting for him to recover like usual.

"Your mother." Pain hit him.

"I'm waiting with her on the other side for you, Pops. Come as soon as you can. Don't leave Mom all alone. She needs you more than you think." Philip kissed Alexander's cheek before standing and making his way out. Phillip knew and understood a lot, but he didn't know something about Eliza. She would be fine without him. She always had been. So why was he staying here?

 

* * *

 

"Ham, wake up." He was cold and he shifted closer to Laurens. Alexander hated the cold.

"Ham, come on. You need to wake up."  _Laurens_. His eyes snapped open to see the other man look at him with that same fond look that Alexander had awoken too many mornings during his time as aide-de-camp to Washington. One he'd come to miss. "Eliza said stay alive. She meant it during the war, and she means it now. Now stay awake and alive."

"You know I never give up, my dear Laurens."

"Good, don't forget that."

"Does that mean you won't set with me, my dear Laurens?"

"Of course not, Ham. Just stay alive... That would be enough..." John's words faded with Alexander's consciousness.

 

* * *

 

Yellow sky.

Quiet.

"Just a moment..." he mumbled to the insistent hand shaking his shoulder.

"Hamilton, I knew you were childish, but never to such an extent. I thought you were a man who never slept." Once again, his eyes snapped open to see His Excellency standing above him, a soft look in his eyes.

"What do you need, sir?" Immediately, he tried to push himself into a sitting position but Washington refused him.

"I'd like to draft an address."

"Anything you need, sir."

"Pick up a pen, start writing." He handed Alexander the pen, parchment soon following. Washington told the story of a boy abandoned on an island, orphaned by circumstance. He didn't catch on until His Excellency started telling him about the hurricane.

"In the eye of the hurricane, there was quiet. For just a moment, a yellow sky." Alexander continued to write his own story, tears blurring what he was writing.

"Just you wait," Alexander whispered.

"And then history had its eyes on you. But understand: you have control who lives, who dies, who tells your story." His Excellency stood, brushing dirt from his breeches. "Son, I'll be watching from the other side." Alexander saluted from his lying position, something he sorely hated. No one should salute the General lying down. He used to be non-stop. And now Aaron Burr had stopped him. _For good_... Closing his eyes, Alexander promised himself five more minutes... 

 

* * *

 

_**Laurens** leads a soldier's chorus on the other side._

**_My_ _son_** _is on the other side._

_He's with **my**   **mother** on the other side._

**_Washington_ ** _is watching from the other side._

 _Teach me how to say goodbye._ Something he was never good at. They always said goodbye first.

Now he had to learn to say goodbye to his Eliza, to their _children._

With tears in his eyes, he whispered, "My love... Take your time. I'll see you on the other side." Eliza gripped his hand tighter, sobs wracking her body. Alexander looked over to Laurens and told him, "Raise a glass to freedom..." With fingers intertwined, they walked towards Washington, who smiled proudly at the two of them. At his smile, His Excellency's words rattled through Alexander's head and Eliza whispered them into Alexander's cold hand.

_History has its eyes on you... You have no control who lives, who dies, who tells your story..._

**Author's Note:**

> im sorry


End file.
